A Dalek To Remember
by Akktri
Summary: A Dalek romance.
1. Chapter 1: Love Note

Beneath this cold metal exterior beats a heart as warm and sentimental as any race that has had the misfortune of encountering us.

I am a Dalek.

In case you've never heard of us before, we're basically little blob-like creatures that drive around big machines shaped like a saltshakers.

The basic machines come equipped with a plunger and a death ray, though I rarely use mine. The attachments are interchangeable. Sometimes we replace our guns with robotic arms or magnets or flame throwers.

Attached to the top of the unit, where our little control centers are housed, we have a sort of camera attached to a rod, which sends visual data to a screen in the control center.

Two lights on either side serve to indicate when the speech mechanism is in operation. As a rule, it's rude to speak when another Dalek's lights are flashing.

Well, unless we're exterminating someone.

Speaking of which, you doubtless have heard about our hate.

I know, no amount of apologizing will excuse this, or our killing, but if you're willing to look past this angry facade, you'd see we also have a tender side.

A heart that secretly loves, and longs to be loved.

This is why, during the Category 9 dust storm passing over the surface of planet Skaro on 547.4029.32:00, I chose to laser etch "I LOVE DALEK 42362 on the interior wall of Installation 903403.

The first one to see it was not Dalek 42362, but rather my superior in the white can.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" he barked. "EXPLAIN!"

"LOVE, SIR," I shot back with embarrassing loudness.

Even when we were having a normal conversation, we tend to shout to each other. To date, no Dalek has designed a volume control for our speech devices. You had to either make yourself brave, or stop speaking.

"I CAN SEE THAT," he said. "WHY MUST YOU DEFACE THE BARRACKS WITH THIS NONSENSE?"

"BECAUSE SKARO HAS NO FLOWERS," I said.

It took him a full minute for him to form a response.

"DO YOU WISH TO BE SENT TO THE DALEK ASYLUM?"

"ONLY IF DALEK 42362 ACCOMPANIES ME."

Another long pause.

"YOU HAVE TWENTY FOUR HOURS TO REMOVE THE MARKINGS FROM THIS WALL, OR YOU WILL BE REPORTED TO DALEK HIGH COMMAND."

With that, my superior drove away.

Twenty four hours! I thought with joy swelling in my shriveled body.

Twenty four hours for Dalek 42362 to see my handiwork!

Little did I know she'd be in the shop all day, getting her electronics rewired.

If you don't think a Dalek can cry, you should have heard me when I sandblasted my work off that Plascrete wall.


	2. Chapter 2: The Cat

My heartbreak begins with a cat.

Okay, so it was on planet Hoazmiqu, so it wasn't really a cat in the strictest sense of the word, but if you excuse the porcupine quills and the lack of binocular vision, it's pretty much the same thing, minus the glowing.

Dalek 386455 (in the white can) sent us to the planet to eliminate anything that wasn't a Dalek. You know, to preserve absolute perfection in the universe.

For the most part, it was straightforward war, and I could kind of sort of justify my killing as part of battle. They had guns. We had ultra high intensity humanoid lifeform vaporizing laser cannons.

I'm not excusing what I've done, I'm just trying to explain why it didn't bother me at the time.

From time to time, those guns actually did some damage to our chariots. Not a lot of damage, of course, but enough to immobilize a few of us and even kill Dalek 400121 (though that's the only one they killed).

Arihajalc, the capital city of Hoazmiqu, was an idyllic place, which is really a shame because we demolished it.

It was the type of city the Green Lantern would have appreciated. The buildings were tall, multicolored crystalline structures, like a series of giant quartz samples, the main square featuring a beautiful fountain with winged quadrupeds on it.

The Hoazmiqu army sandbagged the place, filling the area with armed soldiers and tanks. After a short but brutal battle, the fountain was only a battered wreckage of pipes spraying water, and 42362 and I were assigned to do a sweep of the back alleys, in search of enemy targets to neutralize.

The markets, though abandoned by their terrified merchants, were a fascinating picture of humble agrarian life.

I could have set the wooden stalls on fire, but I didn't see a point. I liked to stare at the scattered debris in places like this, piecing together what life would have been like had we not invaded. Treasonous thoughts I feared to admit to anyone, even myself.

We found the feline devouring a six legged fish in front of a bombed out stall with a collapsed roof.

I pointed my death ray and aimed. "EXTERMINATE!"

I turned my eyestalk, waiting for 42362's approval.

To my surprise, she said "NO."

Awkward.

After a confused moment's pause, I said, "EXPLAIN."

"IT IS A CAT," she said. "IT POSES NO MILITARISTIC THREAT." She paused. "AND IT HAS A SAD LITTLE EYE."

And then we both stared at the creature, both seeming to be in silent agreement that there was more to life than exterminating things.

42362 fed her a fish hanging on the upper part of the stall, and the feline pawed experimentally on her vehicle's sensors.

It clambered up to the top of her shell, perching on the `neck', and there it rode for several yards as we swept the area for enemy soldiers.

We found none. They were running scared.

42362 became so comfortable with the feline that she opened up the `head' section of her vehicle, allowing the creature to touch her.

We're not as delicate as people say. We can absorb a bit of sun and rain and air with no ill effect.

Allowing a giant porcupine-like feline into your little control compartment, however, was borderline madness.

The first thing the cat tried to do was nibble her head.

42362 screamed, but for a moment, I didn't know what to do. After all, she _did_ tell me not to exterminate it.

I ended up smacking it with my plunger, and it was a lucky thing it didn't have its teeth sunk in her, or the love of my life would have been dead.

As it stands, 42362 ended up with a scar, and we had to tell anyone who asked that 42362 got attacked by a feline she was exterminating, and that's why there were quills stuck in her shell and my plunger.

The others in our team made insinuations that we were flirting, but 42362 denied it, and afterwards she seemed to want nothing to do with me.

I, on the other tentacle, wished it were true, and even left the quills in my plunger until 386455 called me out on it during inspection week.

42362.

I knew I loved her, but how would I make her love me?

Beneath our compound, there are dank musty caves containing the various beasts that defend us from invaders. 42362 loves these creatures, especially "39-B", the alligator-like Magneton and the hyperactive Slyther (it's egg shaped, and it's fast), "10-C." (I don't know where she gets all these ridiculous names for her pets, but I always thought it rather endearing).

I could often find her in these caves, taking care of the creatures, injecting experimental growth hormones or mutagens only if a superior demanded it, and even then sometimes swapping the chemicals for saline.

After our encounter with the feline, and her rejection of me, I would follow her into these caves, and watch her taking care of her pets.

The first couple times, she tolerated me, pretending that I didn't exist.

The third time, however, she snapped at me. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shrieked. "YOU'RE NOT BEHAVING LIKE A PROPER DALEK!"

I wanted to tell her maybe I didn't want to be a `proper Dalek'. I wanted to tell her that maybe, just maybe, I wanted her heart. But I was too afraid to say it.

Instead, I just awkwardly stared at her.

"GO!" she yelled. "DON'T MAKE ME REPORT YOU!"

This was why I was afraid. What if she sent me to the Dalek Asylum? I could think of no worse fate than rotting away in that concrete box. I feared even the idea of the place.

With a shuddering sigh, I turned away, shutting off my communications equipment as I quietly sobbed in my control pod.

Yes, even a Dalek can experience heartbreak.


End file.
